This invention was stimulated by the necessity of sealing leaks in flexible membranes of waterbeds and the difficulty of draining such waterbeds, at least sufficiently to relieve the pressure in the vicinity of the leak so as to enable it to be sealed, as by the application of an adherent patch thereover. My solution to this problem does not require depressurization at all, much less complete emptying of the pressurizing fluid. Of course, in the instance of a waterbed the fluid is water, although other liquids might do as well or better. Similar principles apply to flexible membranes constraining gases at pressures low enough to enable the membrane to be folded.
Vachon U.S. Pat. No. 2,548,506 discloses a clamping and stretching tool for use in patching leaks in pneumatic tire tubes, and Kendall U.S. Pat. No. 2,193,514 discloses a somewhat similar inner tube repairing device, but those disclosures are not equivalent to the contents of the present specification, not only because a deflated inner tube is greatly different from a waterbed but also because those inventors thought in terms of a potentially leakable but static material to be sealed, rather than an actually leaking system otherwise in equilibrium.